A US court has ordered the wife of Muhammad Ziaullah Chishti — a businessman who once claimed he would create 1,000 jobs in Bermuda at an artificial intelligence company — to turn over $9.8 million to Bermudian global technology holding firm, The Resource Group International.

The court ruled that Mr Chishti, transferred money to his wife, Sarah Pobereskin, to defraud his creditors or “without reasonable consideration when he was about to become insolvent”, OffshoreAlert reported.

Mr Chishti claimed in 2021 that his company Afiniti, which was developing artificial intelligence software for call centres, would have 1,000 employees on the island by 2025.

But the business faltered after Mr Chishti was accused of sexually assaulting an employee.

Mr Chishti denied the allegations, but the company, which once claimed former British Prime Minister David Cameron as an adviser and employed Princess Beatrice, ran into difficulties and declared bankruptcy in the US last year.

Last week’s ruling voiding the transfers was made at federal court in New York by US District Judge Jed Rakoff in a petition to confirm an arbitration award that The Resource Group International obtained against Mr Chishti last year.

The judge ruled that 25 transfers totalling $8.675 million “were made with actual fraudulent intent” and two transfers totalling $1.153 million “were made without receiving a reasonably equivalent value in exchange and at a time when Chishti reasonably should have believed that he would incur debts beyond his ability to pay as they came due”.

Ms Pobereskin can satisfy her obligation by turning over to The Resource Group International Limited securities in TRG Pakistan Limited, of Pakistan, and Isbei Limited, of the Cayman Islands, cash, or a combination of securities and cash, the judge ruled.